Friday, July 27, 2012

Trip Report: Vireya Rhododendrons in the Cloud Forest

Singapore's Gardens by the Bay has two large domes, the Flower Dome and the Cloud Forest. Both are amazing places. The Cloud Forest dome has more of the types of plants I like to grow, including aroids, orchids and other tropical plants.

Gardens by the Bay's Cloud Forest dome

One of the really cool types of plants growing in the Cloud Forest are the Vireya Rhododendrons. These are a special section of Rhododendrons that grow in tropical locations, usually as epiphytes. They have beautiful flowers of all sorts of different colors. I contacted the guy who runs the Vireya website and he helped me identify the plants in this post. He also told me that the plants in the Cloud Forest were all shipped to the gardens fairly recently and had to have all buds removed from the plants before shipping - for import reasons. So I am really lucky to have been able to see any blooms.

Rhododendron 'Archangel'

Rhododendron 'Inferno'

I'll let the flowers speak for themselves. Beautiful, right?

Rhododendron 'Jimmy Sax'

Rhododendron 'Pretty Lady'

Rhododendron jasminiflorum

I need to try to grow one of these. Right now all I can think about is how unhappy they would be in my greenhouse. It has been about 100 degrees every day for the past couple of weeks and we haven't had any rain in over a month. It's not exactly a cloud forest here in central Oklahoma.

Hi,Exciting to see your great photos of the Vireya , I supplied these from our small specialist Vireya Nursery in Woolgoolga a northern coastal town of NSW Australia. Its a great thrill to see my plants on the world stage some of which I hybridized and are named after family members.Cheers Neil